Happy new year! What are you reading?

Hello, and welcome back!  Have you noticed that each break between post groups gets shorter?  Perhaps after a few years I'll actually have a regular, disciplined posting schedule!  But seriously, I've been spending the past few months healing - first from some sort of infection/cold gak and then surgery.  Everything appears to be good on the latter front, but motivation doesn't seem to accompany recovery.  At least, not for me.  In my absence, though, so many random musings, some of which may make it to "print"!


Two quick book reviews to share tonight.  Both are books that others inspired me to read.




The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande was brought to my attention by Tom Young, a leader at J.R.Clancy.  Tom writes a number of articles and blurbs in his role, including a newsletter for specifiers.  In one of these, Tom mentioned this book, which I took note of but continued on to other pursuits.  (My reading list is ever-growing and will probably never be empty.)  After one of my co-workers read it and found it "interesting," I decided to give it a look myself.  I was gifted a copy and several months later started in.  Why the delay?  Well, how intriguing does a book about checklists sound?


After reading, it should sound like a good, easy read.  The premise is very simple, and perhaps it doesn't need about 200 pages to explain.  Simply put, Gawande's thesis is that well-designed checklists help avoid preventable, common mistakes, particularly in high-stress situations.  However, by taking a full book to discuss this, Gawande takes the reader through multiple industries, including construction and aviation, before focusing on healthcare, his own specialty.  The book is a result of his research with the WHO to improve surgical success rates, whether the surgery is in a well-funded American or British hospital, or an under-staffed and under-supplied facility in Africa.  I'm sure you can guess the proposed solution.


"Despite showing (hospital) staff members of the benefits of using the checklist, 20% resisted stating that it was not easy to use, it took too long and felt it had not improved the safety of care. Yet, when asked an additional question - would you want the checklist to be used if you were having an operation - a full 93% said yes."


Much of the text reads like a medical drama - war stories from operating rooms.  Still, it's engaging. And, I confess, while we were preparing for my surgery in December, I asked my doctor/surgeon about checklists and whether the hospital used one.  She admitted they did, and we discussed it a little.  Of course, part of the point of the book is that the theory isn't restricted to one or two industries - and that perhaps a checklist would be well-utilized in your own practice.
I'll have to ask Tom if his reading of the book changed any of the practices in his company.  




The second book takes less introduction.  Driving with our then-middle school youth director and some students to a church youth retreat, conversation turned to a book that many of the boys had read, some required to - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I had never heard of it before and my director friend advised me that I ought to read it.  It's not quite a year later, but the buzz around this book has only been increasing, especially with a soon-to-be-released movie based on the novel.  


In a lucky find at Half Price Books (they can't keep it in stock), I grabbed a copy.  One Friday evening, I picked it up and started reading.  By mid-afternoon the next day, I was done.  It's been a long time since I've been so captivated by the world of a book that I simply devoured it.  (Harry Potter was likely the most recent one.  Perhaps I'm a sucker for young adult literature.)  It took me a couple of chapters to really get into the story, but then I was hooked.  The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where most of the people in North America live in an impoverished state imposed upon them by the capital to keep them sedate.  A similar motivation is behind the Hunger Games, an annual event pitting adolescents from every district against each other in a fight to the death.  


A few political themes are raised, as are some questions about moral relativity, growing up, responsibility, and hope geared particularly to the younger audience.  Even though I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen, I kept turning the pages to see whether or not it all worked out the way I assumed it had to.  By Sunday, I had MJ started o it and was checking the library webpage to see if the second in the series was available.  (It's a trilogy.)  It wasn't, by the way.  And, I missed my chance this weekend and find myself back on the end of an even longer waiting list. But I will read it, soon - and likely as quickly as the first.  If you haven't read any of them yet, I recommend taking a look before the movies come out.